Trailhead parking & toilet on the corner of Milwaukee Ave & 6th St, right beside Smokey's BBQ. I entered Smokey's BBQ into my GPS for directions. 

We went 2.75 miles west to the bridge at the confluence of the Yakima & Cle Elum rivers. As a 45 yr old fat girl (350lbs), I didn't think I would make it that far, but the trail is smooth, practically a sidewalk, with no elevation change, in a beautiful setting. We took plenty of water & rested by the bridge. So beautiful. My son's husky wanted to take a swim, but the rivers were running to high & swift for such shenanigans. 

Then we headed back to Smokey's BBQ, making a 5.5 mile round trip. (Way to go Fat Girl!) Smokey's has great outdoor seating where we could dine with our dogs, play corn hole or play with wooden blocks (maybe a giant Jenga set, I didn't interrupt the children to inspect). Great food & setting. 

Today I took the PTC trail west from the S Cle Elum TH for a round trip hike for about 5 miles. This is a beautiful section with lots of wetlands and sections that go right along the Yakima River.  It is 2 miles from the trail head to the bridge over the river  and about another half mile to the Bullfrog lumber mill, where we turned around. The TH area is kind of an outdoor railroad museum with informational signage and artifacts. There are just a few short snow patches I crossed, and they won’t last much longer.  I saw three other people on the trail today. 

Hi. Today I took my biped Yapi (that’s what his grandkids call him) on a six mile hike on a flat trail he calls the PTC. I know Yapi sounds like kind of a silly name. I mean, “Yapi”? Really? Now I have a cool name. Prince. It has some stature to it. Of course, given how regal and handsome I look, it should probably King. But I’ll take Prince over Yap any day. He says his other name is cascadesdj. What does he think he is—a mountain range?  A waterfall? He’s nuts!  
He got off the fast road he calls I-90 at a place he called Exit 78 and walked west from there. He said we went 6 miles, but I gotta tell ya, I could have gone a lot farther than that if I didn’t have to pull him along the whole way. Look in the pic how I pull and pull and get no credit. Anyway, We crossed two creeks and both times we went down to get a drink of water. Then soon after, we stopped for a snack and Yap tried to get me to drink water out of stupid little orange plastic cup. Did he forget, I just drank out of two streams? Bipeds! Sometimes I think they have half the brains we canines do. And it makes sense, they have half the legs, right? Anyway, the creeks were called, and I’m not making this up, Little Creek and Big Creek! See what I mean about brains? Imagination much? Wow! Anyway, I wasn’t having any part of this cheesy little water cup business. He said I should, because it was 82 degrees out. What’s that sposed to mean? I figure it’s either real hot, hot, warm, just right, cool, cold, or so cold that white stuff sticks between my toes and on my hairy legs and Yam ( there’s another one of those names) and Yap always make me stand there and get toweled off, which, don’t tell them, feels good. But this degrees and numbers stuff-what’s the point? Yap’s totally hung up on it. He’ll say, “Look, Prince, it’s 3:43! That’s 7 cubed!! “ Well, whoop-de-do! Who cares? All that does is get in the way of living. Oh, and speaking of living, did you see the pic of the pig? We passed this little farm thing and it was great! The smells—oh YEAH! And Yap? He stood there and held his nose shut! That’s crazy! I mean, oh well, I already told you what I think of biped brains! I wanted to actually get in there and roll in that pig muck! That would have been the best! And speaking of rolling, there was lots of horse poop, and some fresh. And did I get to roll and check it out? Of course not. What a waste. He said if I did I’d have to go get shampooed like some prissy little girl dog French Poodle or something. I’ll never understand my bipeds. They don’t just live in the moment, roll in poop and muck and dead stuff, and have other fun. They worry about stuff like numbers and working and getting great smells OFF me, after I’ve gone out of my way to get great smells ON me. Oh well. It’s a dog’s life.

After a hard day biking Roslyn Ridge yesterday, I took an easy couple of hours hiking the PTC Trail. I started just off Exit 80 near the old sawmill and hiked west. There is a frontage road west of the mill and you can park in places next to the road and hike through the woods for 5 minutes and be on the trail. The PTC is easy meditative walking, as there are basically no grade changes. On weekends like today, you do occasionally meet bikers and other hikers. Often, trains go by quite close and very loud. There are cool bridges over the Yakima River and over occasional roads. There are lots of farms, fields, and robust wetlands. It is a relaxing and interesting walk. 

The PTC in the South Cle Elum area is snow free and pretty much mud free. I don’t usually park at the SCE TH and instead drive about 2-3 miles east on Lower Peoh Point Rd to the bus turnaround on the left. Be sure to check the signs here because there’s no parking  on a few hours of the day so school busses can maneuver. This parking place gives you easier access to a better part of the trail going east from there. It gets more interesting than closer to town as the trail follows the river down in this area. I went for 5-6 miles round-trip. There are interesting things to see here. There’s a confluence of the Teanaway and Yakima Rivers, lots of nice quiet woods and, if you’re lucky, fairly close views of trains right across the river. The skunk cabbage is blooming now. I saw just one other person in the almost two hours I was out there.